MOSCOW, February 21 (Itar-Tass) —— Russia’s consumer rights watchdog, Rospotebnadzor, is ready to cooperate with the Ukrainian producers and to allow selling Ukrainian cheese in the territory of the Russian Federation, if the product is of an appropriate quality, Head of the service Gennady Onishchenko said on Tuesday.
“We have been working intensively with /Ukraine’s/ Ministry of Agriculture,” he said. “I must admit, they are lazy.”
Onishchenko added that Rospotebnadzor sent a list of requirements, so that Ukrainian cheese could be sold on the Russian market. Ukrainian officials are not reacting promptly, he said, while producers in Ukraine suffer from losses.
Thus, the Russian authority addressed Ukraine’s producers directly.
“We have published a full list of documents on our site and made a signal to the producers,” he said. If cheese producers present necessary documents, Russian specialists would be able to visit them in order to check the quality of the product, he added.
Onishchenko said that the ban on selling cheese produced in Ukraine, which had been introduced in early February, was caused by violations of Russia’s technical regulations.
“The recipes included deliberately cheep butter, we do not doubt it,” he said. “You are welcome to sell, but quality product.”